Diffusing political concerns: How unemployment information passed between social ties influences Danish voters
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Diffusing political concerns : How unemployment information passed between social ties influences Danish voters. / Alt, James E.; Jensen, Amalie; Larreguy, Horacio; Lassen, David D.; Marshall, John.
In: Journal of Politics, Vol. 84, 10.11.2021.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Diffusing political concerns
T2 - How unemployment information passed between social ties influences Danish voters
AU - Alt, James E.
AU - Jensen, Amalie
AU - Larreguy, Horacio
AU - Lassen, David D.
AU - Marshall, John
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Southern Political Science Association. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/11/10
Y1 - 2021/11/10
N2 - While social pressure is widely believed to influence voters, evidence that information passed between social ties affects beliefs, policy preferences, and voting behavior is limited. We investigate whether information about unemployment shocks diffuses through networks of strong and mostly weak social ties and influences voters in Denmark. We link surveys with population-level administrative data that log unemployment shocks afflicting respondents’ familial, vocational, and educational networks. Our results show that the share of second-degree social ties—individuals that voters learn about indirectly—that became unemployed within the last year increases a voter’s perception of national unemployment, self-assessed risk of becoming unemployed, support for unemployment insurance, and voting for left-wing political parties. Voters’ beliefs about national aggregates respond to all shocks similarly, whereas subjective perceptions and preferences respond primarily to unemployment shocks afflicting second-degree ties in similar vocations. This suggests that information diffusion through social ties principally affects political preferences via egotropic—rather than sociotropic—motives.
AB - While social pressure is widely believed to influence voters, evidence that information passed between social ties affects beliefs, policy preferences, and voting behavior is limited. We investigate whether information about unemployment shocks diffuses through networks of strong and mostly weak social ties and influences voters in Denmark. We link surveys with population-level administrative data that log unemployment shocks afflicting respondents’ familial, vocational, and educational networks. Our results show that the share of second-degree social ties—individuals that voters learn about indirectly—that became unemployed within the last year increases a voter’s perception of national unemployment, self-assessed risk of becoming unemployed, support for unemployment insurance, and voting for left-wing political parties. Voters’ beliefs about national aggregates respond to all shocks similarly, whereas subjective perceptions and preferences respond primarily to unemployment shocks afflicting second-degree ties in similar vocations. This suggests that information diffusion through social ties principally affects political preferences via egotropic—rather than sociotropic—motives.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - beliefs
KW - information
KW - social networks
KW - Unemployment
KW - voting behavior
U2 - 10.1086/714925
DO - 10.1086/714925
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85115617250
VL - 84
JO - Journal of Politics
JF - Journal of Politics
SN - 0022-3816
ER -
ID: 284770480